Day 478
By the end of the day all the new fae of day and night have awoken and are bustling about. Jaeril is settling in - it helps having Liliales around and all of us in my little cottage feels nice and homey. It's almost too easy to slip back into the people we once were.
It helps having Lyssa around, planning for what comes next after our delegation departs. Snuggled in bed we plot our next moves. I'll be heading to Deldrin by way of Solace and moving South around the Unfreezing Sea. Perhaps Kaide and Liliales and Jaeril and I would be able to cross it in the air but Trillium will not. Heading that way will give us the opportunity to investigate that canyon Amytri showed me on our way North as well.
I want Lyssa to travel with us to Deldrin too, but she wisely agrees to join us there after she handles some corralling of the Outlands. Once Whitewater is settled and infrastructure between Dreamfall and New Whitewater is well in-hand she'll fly to Deldrin to meet with me (and the Empress) and then return to the Valley to invite them to join us.
I'm proud of her for choosing this path. It is less attractive than travelling with me and Trillium but it is the right path.
Day 479
On our last full day together the Grove is alight with activity - Kaide is carefully constructing a woven branch circlet for Arborist Andstella while Alder and Miriam prepare an enormous cake for our celebration tonight. Word finds me that Randall is teaching the new fae about dwarven ballads as a part of our 'cultural exchange' and it has resulted in quite a lyrical undertaking to describe me having saved the summer fae.
I find him drunk and hiccoughing, surrounded by both sleeping and wake fae. He has clearly been indulging in fae wine as though it is ale; I hardly feel that additional reprimands will be necessary given the hangover I'm sure he'll have in several hours. But for good measure I give him a little enchantment of rainbows and soft glowing light - exactly what the song says surrounds me! It's a suitable trade, and one that Liliales and I continue working on while Randall passes out. By the end of it his buttons are enchanted to continue the illusion and I'm sure it will take him weeks to figure it out.
Before the party Yneir thanks me again for not giving up on her, and shares a vision she has had. It is vague and at the moment, meaningless. Personally this is how I always prefer my prophecies...unclouded by immediate understanding. In this she sees me standing somewhere high up, casting a shadow over thousands. She sees a trap closing around me and tells me to be careful around large bodies of water and becoming caught in the current. It's ominous, coming right before a journey past the Unfreezing Sea and out to the ocean itself.
The party begins at midday and goes late into the night. A pavillion draped in fae-style scarves, cake with spun sugar, music and dancing in both elvish and fae styles. I share moments with all of those who will be leaving, particularly with Alder, Tira, and Caravel.
Parting with Alder is so hard. He has been my shadow since the moment I found him and while he's had to go his own way during the storm we are now asking so much more of him. The magical studies, the Capital, standing alone without my long shadow to hide him. He tells me that he is going home changed for the better. And he gives me a gift - a knife imbued with his magic that can be thrown through shadows. I think back to the bracers that Bran and I made for him and how seriously he worked to master this exact skill. I will have to work on it with no teacher, but I'll have his magic to guide me.
To Tira I give a special instruction, that if it is truly in Alwen's best interests to cross the Barrier and join us, he should. I cannot know enough to make that decision for him and I trust both of them to make it on my behalf. I hope he will earnestly evaluate whether it is best for him to remain in the Capital both in my service and in his own.
And lastly, Caravel, who simply puts an arm around me and says,
Look what you've built.
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